The present invention relates generally to work pants and in particular to work pants designed for kneeling work activity. The pants incorporate removable knee and leg protection means, and preferably also incorporate releasably attached pockets as well as a crotch gusset.
Various work activities require a great deal of time spent in a kneeling position wherein the worker's knee and shin are often in contact with the floor or with work tools. In particular, the job of carpet laying requires, in addition to a substantial amount of kneeling, the use of the knee or lower thigh to push against various carpet stretching tools involved in the process of carpet installation. Various strap-attached knee pads have been proposed for knee protection. However, such straps tend to constrict the knee area, causing discomfort. They also allow the knee pad itself to become dislodged from its proper position, thus requiring frequent readjustment. Furthermore, it is desirable that padded protection extend more than just at the knee area as the thigh and portions of the shin are often in contact with, or hitting, working tools during the kneeling work activity of carpet installation.
Another approach to knee area protection is seen in fabric pants that incorporate permanent knee pads into their construction. However, permanently attached knee pads require a compromise between ease of laundering and pad size or thickness. If the pad is very thick, or has a large surface area, it can during washing become so saturated and weighty with water that it presents washload weight and balance problems, and can be very difficult to dry. Thus, to permit easy washing, a permanent knee pad normally will cover only the knee area and not be of sufficient thickness or area of coverage for adequate protection in work activities such as carpet laying. Furthermore, it is extremely comfortable to pull up or raise one's pant legs prior to kneeling so as to provide extra material at the crotch and knee area for comfort and to avoid binding constrictions of material in those areas. However, if only a small knee area on each pant leg area is padded, the above-stated procedure of readjusting each pant leg for comfort in kneeling can result in the fixed padded knee portion being pulled up and over the knee, and thus not available for protecting the knee.
Other factors of general importance for work clothing are its durability and ease of cleaning. All cloth or fabric articles eventually wear out due to breakage of individual fibers as a result of use, but washing to remove soil enhances the wear life of such clothing. Of course, vulnerable wear areas of clothing may be protected by patches of leather to enhance durability. Leather patches such as those of cow or horse hide are very durable, but their use in clothing, particularly fabric work clothing requiring washing, is very limited because leather is damaged by conventional laundering, and other cleaning techniques for work clothing are too expensive for practical use.
An important function of work pants is to provide some means (such as loops or pockets) for carrying various work implements or tools. Such carrying means are most often made from the same material as the work pants, typically a heavy cotton denim material, and are subject to the problem of premature wear and breakage due to the repeated insertion and removal of tools from them.
Insofar as is known, no one has heretofore provided work pants designed for high comfort of the user in kneeling work activity, adjustable for comfort and yet fully effective and extensively padded for the protection of the user's knees and associated areas, and also possessing the wear durability of leather for the knee and associated areas as well as for tool pockets, while at the same time preserving ease of repeated low cost cleaning by conventional laundering.